Facebook removing 66,000 posts a week in crackdown on hate speech

FACEBOOK says it is deleting 66,000 posts a week in a bid to crackdown on hate speech as the social network hits two billion users a month.

AFP

News Corp Australia NetworkJune 28, 20174:12am

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is cracking down on hate speech as his social network hits two billion monthly users. Picture: APSource:AP

FACEBOOK says it is deleting 66,000 posts a week in a bid to crackdown on hate speech as the social network hits two billion users a month

The company said in a blog post that deleting posts can “feel like censorship,” but that it is working on explaining its process better and improving its enforcement of hate speech.

Facebook now has two billion monthly users. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Facebook defines hate speech as attacks on people based on their race, sexual orientation and other “protected characteristics.”

The Menlo Park, California, company said it mostly relies on its two billion users to report any hateful posts they see.

Workers then review the posts and decide whether to delete it. Facebook Inc. said it plans to hire an additional 3000 people in the next year to review posts. That’s on top of the 4500 people it currently has reviewing posts.

Last year it deleted the post of a black activist, who had posted hate mail he received that included slurs. Facebook said it restored the post and apologised.

“We know that these kinds of mistakes are deeply upsetting for the people involved and cut against the grain of everything we are trying to achieve at Facebook,” said Facebook Vice President Richard Allan, in the blog post.

Facebook wants to build communities. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

It came as Facebook said its ranks of monthly active users had now hit two billion people.

“As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people!” co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on his Facebook page marking the milestone.

“We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together,” he wrote. “It’s an honour to be on this journey with you.” Naomi Gleit, a vice president at the internet giant, credited millions of small communities at Facebook for helping drive growth.

“There are two billion people connecting and building communities on Facebook every month,” she said.

More than a billion people take part in “groups” at Facebook each month and more than 800 million people “like” something at the social network on an average day, she added.

Founded in 2004, the social media behemoth hit the billion-user mark five years ago.